


Learning Curve

by Nirmalneaners



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Feels, Awkward Conversations, Awkwardness, Bruce Feels, Bruce Has Issues, Clark Tells the Truth, Confessions, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Feelings, Feels, Heart-to-Heart, Light-Hearted, Love Confessions, M/M, Neck Kissing, Sharing a Bed, Talking, Unresolved Emotional Tension, sad clark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 19:22:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15847746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nirmalneaners/pseuds/Nirmalneaners
Summary: "do you love me?"Bruce's eyes snapped open, his brain not processing exactly what was going on quick enough to stop his body tensing. Where the hell had that come from?  Clark must have seen his reaction as the bedding started to be bunched up more as the silence hung between them.





	Learning Curve

It was a nagging feeling that pulled him out of his sleep, an old instinct of awareness honed after all these years that had him waking up groggily. He led for awhile coming to terms with the small slither of morning sunlight cutting its way through the blinds, his mind trying to process what it was that exactly warranted his consciousness at this hour. And then he felt it. The cover pulled ever so slightly, relaxing and then was pulled even further almost as if someone was fiddling with the bedding. He groaned, not bothering to hide his displeasure in its tone.  
  
"Bruce?" the pulling stilled.  
  
He drew in a long breath, stretching out until his back popped loudly and released it as a sigh. He could practically see Clark grimace behind him at the sound in his mind. He shifted his head deeper into the cushions and closed his eyes with satisfaction. _Good_ , he thought, _serves him right for waking me up._  
  
He grunted acknowledgment after some time, feeling the covers begun to shift again. He recognized it for what it was after Clark didn't reply for a while, it was one of the man's many nervous ticks he had picked up in his lifetime and this wouldn't stop unless he talked about it, so Bruce had to at least give some effort if he wanted to go back to sleep anytime soon.  
  
"do you love me?"  
  
Bruce's eyes snapped open, his brain not processing exactly what was going on quick enough to stop his body tensing. _Where the hell had that come from?_ Clark must have seen his reaction as the bedding started to be bunched up more as the silence hung between them.  
  
He ran the question through his head a few times, ran it backward, placed the words in a few different orders. It still didn't make sense, or he just didn't want it to.  
  
" _What?_ " came tumbling out of his mouth in a barely controlled voice.  
  
Clark startled, dipping the bed slightly as he jumped and ferociously ups his mission to ruin Alfred's nicely ironed duvet.  
  
"You don't have to answer," he quickly says, "But you can tell me the truth if you want. I can handle it. It's okay if you don't, I get it. I do. But hal got me thinking, and I know you don't like emotional talk but lately, things have changed and I have to know."  
  
He could tell from his tone alone he's deadly serious about all of this, Clark had never been very good at hiding his emotions and especially not from him. Bruce rolled slowly, forcing his body to relax with the motion so he could seem less defensive and actually looked at the man in question. He was purposely not making eye contact, instead, his attention was sorely at his fingers as they played with the fabric. And this was more out of ordinary than the uncertain scowl on his face. This was 100% farm boy Clark Kent, and Bruce found himself simply staring at him with a level of weary hesitance as he recognized the uncertainty and tension of a man getting ready to be crushed.  
  
He watched the scowl deepen the longer the silence stretched, he knew people didn't find it comforting or in anyway relaxing, and Alfred had warned him multiple times that it wasn't a good key to aiding someone emotionally. But in silence, he got to think about it all, process it and break it down. He had to tread lightly here, one wrong word and it could all backfire on him horribly. Worse if it was the other way around. Many didn't realize Clark wasn't just Superman, his emotions ran so deep under the cape that it was an enigma when he first got under the prideful and absoluteness he had come to expect and found a man that was full of doubts and fragile sensitivity. So he stared up, watched as Clark leaned against the headboard and tried to figure out why he was awake at god knows what time with a loaded gun pointed at him that he did not see coming. Had something changed? If it had he certainly never noticed. He wasn't any more or less curt with him, or so he thought, and they missed out on one night this week but that wasn't exactly uncommon given their line of work. He felt his own eyebrows pinch together in confusion and a little frustration at this turn of events.  
  
"Why would you ask me that?" he settles on instead, not accusing but not defensive either. A monotone question simply asking for more information to work with. "We've been-" he pauses, thinking of the right word. It feels weird on his tongue. " _-partners _for 7 years and you ask me that now?"__  
  
Clark pauses his administrations again, and Bruce just barely caught himself from hitching his breath in agitation to what's coming next.  
  
"I don't know," he admits, and Bruce could tell it was a half-truth. Clark was only just thinking it over, this thing that had been stewing for god knows how long. So he waits, he let's the other man have time to sort through his emotions and thoughts before finally a pitiful look overtakes his face and Bruce knows he's in for a revelation, because weather inadvertently, that look was because of him and he hated it. "We are exactly how we were when this first started. Its like we take a step forward, I mess up and then we are back five paces. I mean you can't even say partner without sounding put off by it, like your only _forcing_ yourself to say it to appease me. I love you, Bruce, I'm just not sure if that love isn't a burden to you. As if you never meant to let it get this far, but because of _me_ it has."  
  
"Clark."  
  
He bristles at the name, turning his eyes sharply onto Bruce at the tone. He stares at him for a moment, stringing his words together slowly to get his point across. He understood what was going on, now. He knew emotions were his weakness, whether he had too many or too few he couldn't tell, but somewhere he had messed up in another relationship and brought a god down to his knees in a way he never wanted.  
  
"If I had somehow made it seem that I was not interested, I apologize... Emotions, the ability to be close to someone, is an internal struggle that I don't always pay attention to, or chose not too." He stopped for a moment, pushing down the urge to not give too much away. To show his biggest weakness. "It is not you who is to Blame in any of this, intimacy is something of a difficult concept that I have been facing, willing, with you. But I sometimes find it hard, too-"  
  
He thinks. "foreign. I shut in on myself to protect what, I don't really know. You, maybe. I had thought you would have seen by being accepted into my home, my work and even my bed it would be an acceptable gesture. But now I see by not talking to you about our relationship, or where we stand officially you felt you couldn't approach me. I didn't realize you had no clue where your position was with us all this time, that you might have needed to talk about it and establish it together, and for that I'm sorry."  
  
"Its fine, really, Bruce," Clark assures, he doesn't sound truly fine, but he does let a little smile bleed through to replace some of his hesitance. He's returned to playing with the cover, a small amount fraying as he started to pick at in worry. Bruce watched him unstirred, he can always buy a new one. "I just have to ask, are we partners? Is that what you consider us as? Do you love me by now?"  
  
"You live in the cave as you live in my house. You have bonded with my children and you use my shower gel. You help on my cases as you help when I'm wounded." he sees Clark's mouth twitch down in something akin to disappointment, and Bruce realized he may not be conveying what it is he's trying to say in the right way. He knew one what would. "You, and only you have full undoubted trust and reliance to protect all of Gotham whether I am here or absent. I have no fear over any of it. Over letting you into any area of my life, _I trust you._ "  
  
He knew it wasn't the words Clark originally wanted to hear from him, but they were his version. His truth. His way of saying them back when he couldn't quite get those three words past his throat. He didn't know if he ever could, but he hoped one day. Clark smiled brightly at him, a fondness in his eyes that Bruce drunk in greedily. He finally scooted back down when Bruce patted the bed, the gap between them vanishing as he splayed himself to Clarks back and breathed in, smelling a familiar scent of citrus and allowing a content sigh to escape as his arm snaked around his partner's midsection with a squeeze.  
  
It was only as his nose lightly stroked through curly hair that something struck him.

"Clark?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Did you say you were talking to Hal?"  
  
He felt the subtle shake of Clark's body as he chuckled, a warm chiding in his tone, " _Bruce._ "  
  
He smiled despite himself, laying a kiss on the back of Clark's neck.  
  
If Hal went into his apartment the next day and found a brand new gaming console and a note of thanks, well, Bruce had no idea about that.


End file.
